The smoke has cleared, the crowds long gone from the Irwindale Event Center and most Formula Drift teams have already turned the page and begun mapping out plans for 2017. But we found one more photo gallery from the House of Drift season finale and it got us thinking about how the 2016 championship played out over the last six plus months. Like apparently every season, it was loaded with highs and lows, dramatization and dissatisfaction, and when all was said and done we had a commonplace champion recovering the title.
Surprisingly since 2005, Formula D added another round to its Pro title plan, extending to eight occasions what had been seven for over 10 years. The opposition year again commenced in Long Beach, where the huge news was Chelsea DeNofa gaining his first general triumph in the BC Racing E46 following six years as a FD Pro. He was a piece of a solid BMW 3-Series crowd that included autos for Essa Michael, Bluss Kristaps, Moen Kenny and youngster Heilbrunn Alex.
The Bimmer crew flexed their muscle again at Round 3: Orlando, where Bluss willed himself onto the podium in the HGK Motorsports M3, taking second. Orlando was also the setting for “de-bead-gate,” but a round later at Wall Speedway (where Heilbrunn in the IMR BMW became the first rookie of the season to get on the podium, landing third) the overriding controversy emerged from a hard crash between Forrest Wang in the Get Nuts Lab S15 and Chris Forsberg in the NOS Energy Drink 370Z – an incident that apparently caused Wang to initially announce he was leaving the series. It’s kind of a bummer that the contest will likely be remembered for that and not Vaughn Gittin, Jr.’s momentous accomplishment, picking up the win in the Monster Energy Drink Mustang RTR to equal Sam Hubinette’s longstanding record for most event victories.
Wang was persuaded to return, and was back for the round at Autodrome Saint-Eustache in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, another track on the timetable and an occasion won by '15 champ Fredric Aasbo in the Rockstar Energy Drink Scion tC. Aasbo, Gittin, and Forsberg fundamentally earned the lion's share of focuses in 2016, with JR getting his fourth number-one qualifier at Round 7:Texas to run with his two triumphs prior in the year. Be that as it may, Texas '16 will be known for Alec Hohnadell getting his first platform (for third) as a FD Pro in the Enjuku Racing S14, and all the more fundamentally Matt Field grabbing his first FD win in the Driftcave Motorsports S14. Field kept that force and rode it the distance to the top stride of the platform at the season nearer, Irwindale, too.
The year, be that as it may, had a place with Forsberg. In Atlanta for Round 2 he completed third, starting an epic keep running of platform completes that would last until Texas – an exceptional arrangement of six main three results. Chris wouldn't lead the point standings until the One-More-Time-athon of Round 6 at Evergreen Speedway in Washington, and most likely thought he'd blown his odds for another title in the wake of slamming in Top 16 at Irwindale. Be that as it may, fortunes was on his side, as Aasbo, as well, got more forceful than he should've and got dinged for it, giving the 2016 title to Forsberg.
Presently comes the senseless season, senseless not in particular since we go somewhat wacko without our consistent Formula D settle. Arrangement news will leave the SEMA Show in two or three weeks, and meanwhile we have bits of gossip and theory in abundance to keep our creative energies on overdrive. 2017 can't arrive soon enough.
Original published at "superstreetonline" website.
